National CPA group comes under fire for mandating the collection of fingerprints from US college students/CPA examinees, and for sharing these prints with a foreign data-broker.

The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) has admitted to forcing college students, (and anyone else taking the CPA exam) to enroll their fingerprints in a massive new Global Fingerprint Identification Database operated by the foreign data-miner and data-broker ChoicePoint. The fingerprinting is being done supposedly “for examinee identification purposes.”

Under the program, the AICPA will consider a US passport “insufficient identification” to sit for the exam. According to ChoicePoint’s website, the largest customer receiving the data they collect is the US Dept of Homeland Security, although they sell American’s personal data to tens-of-thousands of private firms as well.

Jason Giaimo, President of Alaska-based Net Gain Business Consultants and a vocal critic of the program asks, “Does it make any sense that a US passport is sufficient identification to travel the world and enter the USA--but not to take the CPA exam?”

One CPA examinee offered to show a US passport, driver’s license, social security card – even a birth certificate….but was prevented from testing due to having “insufficient identification.” According to Mr. Giaimo, “this program is clearly not about identification, but about amassing biometric data on law-abiding Americans. It is just another shameful example of big business masquerading as “security.”

The AICPA maintains that collecting & storing fingerprints is necessary to “protect the candidates privacy and to improve exam security.” According to Mr. Giaimo, “the assertion that a US passport is not adequate for identification is clearly ridiculous; the AICPA should stop the collection and trafficking of America’s biometric data.” The fingerprinting program remains in place at the current time.

American Institute of CPAs and the National Assoc. of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) who control the CPA exam, fingerprint test takers to “ensure their identity” and transmit all fingerprints to the international data-mining, data-broker ChoicePoint: www.nasba.org/nasbaweb/NASBAWeb.nsf/NWL/...

ChoicePoint sells personal data collected on the open market. Data-privacy experts EPIC have determined that “ChoicePoint has several multi-million dollar contracts with law enforcement agencies to sell personal data.” epic.org/privacy/choicepoint/

ChoicePoint amasses vast databases of private information from numerous sources, sells to the Federal Government who is legally prevented from collecting it directly themselves: www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?filepath=...

ChoicePoint assessed the largest fine in Federal Trade Commission’s history for "making false and misleading statements about privacy policies, violating privacy rights and Federal laws." ChoicePoint sued by Attorney General’s of 44 US States for legal and privacy violations: www.ftc.gov/opa/2006/01/choicepoint.shtm